Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-08-28
A PHYSICIANS FEES.
HOW A FRONTIER DOCTOR RAN
UP $1,000 IN TEN DAYS.

A Strange Contagion Out in 1Iontana-A
Form of the Plague Thought to Have
Come from the Celestials-A Dis
covery.
ain the frontier town of Eagle, n. T.,
where live" remarked traveller from the
| west, Eve have just had strange contagion.
Within few days one-half of the population
found itself afflicted. The disease manifested
itself in the form of blue blotches ON various
parts of the body, the hands, face and legs
being most marked Some said the discolora-
ton could he washed off, and others said 1t
couldn't There was but one doctor in town,
and he soon had almost everybody in the
place under treatment. You never in your
life saw doctor prosper as that man did.
He charged enormous fees, which the people
were glad enough to pay, for they were all
very much frightened. The doctor pro-
nounced the outbreak blue mango, or form
of the plague, and said that unless it were
skillfully handled the most terrible results
were sure to follow-blood poisoning, decom-
position, putrid sores and death. There was
no drug store in town, and he telegraphed to
Helena for a supply Of the only medicine
which, he said, had been found efficacious in
such cases Pending the arrival Of this sup
ply he applied some sort Of Oil to the blue
spots, and cautioned the patients against the
use of water on the afflicted parts.
"Well, such excitement as we had in our
town for a few days you never saw. The
doctor was the one great man in the burg.
Everybody wanted him, and the richest Sc
cured his services at great cost. He was up
bar, tha DIV 10
said it was very expensive, and that he had
been able to secure but limited quantity.
Consequently he doled it out as sparingly as il
it were gold, and charged at the rate of $40 a
bottle
"Nobody, however, experienced any evil eff
fects from the scourge. There was no pain,
no itching, no discomfort of any sort. The
doctor said that would all come quick enough
if the people neglected to apply the proper
treatment; that a popularity of the terrible
scourge was that in its first stages it was SEEM
ingly harmless Some did have burning
sensation in the afflicted parts, but this did
not appear in any case until after they had
been to the doctor for treatment. And thus
the days wore by, and it was only question
of a week or so more when the doctor would
have had all the money in the town. He had
been poor devil without patient, and liv-
ing from hand to mouth, but now he fairly
rolled in wealth.
"Finally one of our citizens became SO
alarmed by the doctors description of the ter
rible results of the scourge that he posted off
to Helena to seek further medical advice.
During his absence the people rose in their
might and drove all the Cinnamon in town
over the range, threatening their lives if they
ever returned. This was done because the
doctor had expressed an opinion that the
plague had originally come from the celes-
tials, who must have brought it from China.
TOLD STRANGE STORY
"In two or three days the stage came in
from Helena and aboard was our citizen who
had gone to get medical advice. He imme-
diately called a meeting of the leading citi-
zenS and told them a strange story He said
the so called scourge was no scourge at all;
that we had all been duped: that the discol-
Grafton which had alarmed us so greatly was
nothing but the stains of Prussian blue, and
that the doctors at Helena had told him that
our doctor must have gone about town Sc
cretly dropping little bits of the dye here and
thereon the rail of the one billiard table in
the town, on chairs in the saloon, on the
SOuioeiS anu every place WHERE people WOulu
be likely to get it upon their clothing or per-
SON More than this, stains of the blue had
been found on his coat, and doubtless we
could all find similar stains on close examina-
ton of our clothing Prussian blue, the He
lena doctors had said, was a diffusive SUBJ
stance, and it would be an easy matter
for any one starting out systemat-
ically to place bits of it in such manner that
every man in town would soon become |
marked with it. Again, the Oil which our |
doctor has applied to the discolored parts was |
common castor oil, put on probably for the |
purpose of fixing the color SO it could not be |
easily washed off, while the wonderful medi- |
cine which he had procured from Helena at |
such great expense proved on analysis to be |
mixture of kerosene oil, water and red pep
per.
with a howl of rage the meeting broke |
up and started, every man on the run and |
with his revolver drawn, for the office Of the |
doctor. But he could not be found. During |
the previous night he had jumped the town,
and by this time was probably many mile |
on his way to the railway. A party of citi-
zens mounted their horses and started in pur-
suit, but returned the next day without |
catching sight of the fugitive. For ten days |
that cute doctor, tired Of trying to earn his |
living by practicing medicine in SO healthy |
town as Eagle, had bagged about $11, 900 |!
profit on his investment of dollar in Prus-
sian blue, And he got away with every cent